Month: April 2016

This week one of the tasks we did in class was enabling the use of controllers in our 2.5D sidescrollers using unity’s input manager. I will admit, it was a lot simpler than I thought it would be when I’ve played a game using a controller in the past, but still very cool to finally be able to do. Doing this also enabled us to add a second playable character (This time it was a spider) to the game, and after adjusting the script a little we then had a very simple multiplayer game. At this point in time the camera was still connected to the skeleton character, so the next step was to create a script that allowed the camera to behave much like the camera in a super smash brothers game. Finally, the lesson was ended by having to enable the players to take damage when hit by the other player and eventually die, which gave our multiplayer game a goal and thus ending the work on this particular game. Next week we are starting the base for the next assessment in class which is a resource management game.

After the study week, the first game brief was a 2.5D platforming side-scroller with intentions of adding some kind of multiplayer support. Using a skeleton asset downloaded from the Unity asset store, we created a script that gave the skeleton basic movement (forwards, backwards, jumping and attacking) and then matched them with the corresponding animations that came with the asset.

We also used the animation window in Unity to create a simple animation, namely the back and forwards movement of a rectangular platform. Using the animation window is something I have never done and as I’ve said multiple times, I enjoy learning new things and I look forward to using this for something in the future.

The final task for the first person shooter was to add damage to the multiple weapon types and to make sure that the UI and the clip sized changes too. The damage and clip size changing was pretty simple, but the UI changes was definitely harder than I thought it would be at first.

Along with the in class work, the first assessment was also due this week. I have already finished it at this point, but I did spend a bit of time helping out some of my class mates. I like to look over other peoples code as its always interesting to see other peoples programming styles how they solve similar problems to what I had. It’s also a good opportunity to practice code which is always good and the best way to learn code in my oppinion.

This week was the official end of the Shoot em up and the start of the first person shooter. The idea of the first person shooter is to create a survival type game mode where the enemies should be constantly spawning and looking for the player using a ray cast and following them around, ideally doing damage to the player and being able to take damage from the player and nearby explosive barrels.

Working on the first person shooter this week, I learnt how to make a basic enemy spawner and worked on creating an enemy that could detect the player using a ray cast and constantly move towards the player whilst it’s in the enemy objects vision. Whilst doing this I couldn’t help but enjoy learning the basics for mechanics which I can and will improve upon in the future and it’s always satisfying doing code that I have never done before.

Being code I hadn’t done before I was largely reliant of the tutors instructions, which is fine considering I am still a student and all, but the important part now is to remember, revise and practice the code in the future.

Along with starting the first person shooter, we were also officially given the brief for our first assessment “Angry Cars”. As you can probably gather from the name, the idea is to create something that takes inspiration from both “Angry Birds” and a generic racing game. The core dynamic of the game is to have a player drive through a course gaining speed and then have them hit a ramp in an attempt to hit blocks and gain points. I already have a few ideas for the game to make it my own and I look forward to working on it. Over the coming weeks.